Best practice for Android form - selection of large range of numbers

Question

For a user input field in an Android application I am developing, I need the user to be able to input a number representing a distance, whose magnitude ranges from 0 to normally ~150 (but can be higher). I have been using a simple text entry field with data verification, but have noticed that it is by far the slowest portion of filling out the form, due to the manual closing of the keyboard. It's just not as effortless as the rest of the form.

Seek bars, have issues with precisely picking a single number (as well as the possibility of needing to enter an abnormally large number, which would require increasing the sensitivity even more).

+/- buttons similar to a time/date picker have no issues with range, but take too long to reach extreme values.

Unfortunately, short of these, I am having issues picking a best option, as all have significant drawbacks.

Any help in picking what would be best practice would be greatly appreciated. I just want the user to have the best experience in quickly and precisely picking from a large range of numbers.

Answer 1

You can use a seek bar backed by +/- buttons. The bar can be used for selecting the rough magnitude of the number and the buttons for fine-tuning. Also, if you provide a live textual indication of the current value of of the sidebar, you increase the user's chances of getting very close to the real number.

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Answer 2

In such a case you have to have a combination of Seek bar and a text input. So when the seek bar changes the text input dynamically changes the text and visa verse.

I understand that you problem here is that the number can go till infinite and that cannot be achieved in Seekbar, in such a case, please try to reduce user confusion just give a text input. Only other option is to give predefined range.

Like less than 100. 100 to 200, ....

That helps when we take input for price but am not sure how you are going to use the data in your application.

Answer 3

For these situations a per digit spinner control would be a very good choice. With just a few interactions it lest you input a large range of numbers.